Directors Yann Cantais (Granddaughters of the Water) and Caylee So (Paulina) in person for intro Q&A!

The Granddaughters of Water
Yann Cantais | France | 2012 | 12m

A delicate evocation of village life, shot in black and white. Children play, adults work, drink and prepare meals, while a grandfather silently sits on his porch and remembers the terrors of the past.

Paulina
Caylee So | USA | 2012 | 30m

17-year-old Paulina has found herself attracted to the game of bets and wagers; a love understood and shared by her father and a community of Cambodian gamblers. Met with strong disapproval from her sister Sopheap, Paulina remains tied to the community. But soon she finds herself in the midst of her father's war with addiction, and the realities of this world is unmasked; Paulina must choose between the world she is drawn to and the life she might someday want.

Samsara
Ellen Bruno | USA | 1989 | 29m

This meditative, quietly urgent study of common life in Cambodia in the aftermath of Pol Pot was the first film from documentarian Ellen Bruno (Satya – A Prayer for the Enemy, Sky Burial), who served as a relief worker in Southeast Asia before studying film at Stanford. SAMSURA, shot in 16mm by cinematographer Ellen Kuras, was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2012.

Two Girls Against the Rain
Sopheak Sao | Cambodia | 2013 | 11m

The latest documentary shory from filmmaker Sopheak Sao is about Soth Yun and Sem Eang, two women who met during the Khmer Rouge regime and fell in love. Their bond has survived years of forced separation, first by the government and then by their families, and an ongoing struggle for respect within the community of Takeo in southern Cambodia. Screened in the Panorama section of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.